BOOTH'S NEW LIFE
Chapter 1:
The Carassious Auratus Auratus' Theory
Timeline: Between February 2010 and September 2010
Season/episode: Between season 5's finale and season 6's premiere (during Booth's tour in Afghanistan).
Note: The Carassious Auratus Auratus is the common goldfish.
A/N: I've put a complete A/N in the prologue where you can find all the information you need to decide if you wish to read this story or not (warnings, pairings, etc). Please go to the prologue and read the A/N.
Booth had been in Afghanistan for three months already and during that time he had kept in contact with everyone who was dear to him, more or less regularly, with only one exception: Bones.
Everyone, from Cam to Wendell or Caroline or his friend Hank, had found the time to email him every other day, she hadn't even answered his emails. In addition to the emails that kept him in contact with his co-workers, friends, and of course his Jeffersonian family, he had called Pops, Jared, and even Cam regularly enough to know what was happening home.
He knew about the problems and imminent closure of the lab, how Cam had already secured a job as a Federal Coroner in D.C., and how Wendell was now working as a mechanic to save money to go back to college.
He knew Jared and Padme had finally chosen a date for their wedding. It'll be in the summer, a few months after he had returned home, and Jared even asked him to be the best man. He had obviously accepted, happy that his little brother was finally growing up.
He also talked with Parker through Skype once a week, on top of almost daily emails. The boy told him all about school, his friends, his baseball or hockey games… they talked about what they would do when his tour ended, and anything they could come up with. Parker never failed to tell him how much he missed and loved him, and he reassured his son that it was mutual before promising to be careful and hanging up.
Yet, he had been unable to locate or make contact with his partner, if she was still his partner; he was starting to doubt it.
Booth had gone back to the Army and to Afghanistan with the intention of moving on from Brennan. She had made it clear that she didn't want him, and he needed to move on. He couldn't do it in a city full of memories of her and their partnership, and the Army offered him the distance he needed. Moreover, it offered him the opportunity to become stronger, to let the soldier in him control his life long enough to break the connection between Brennan and himself. But even in these circumstances he had wanted to keep in contact with her to keep their partnership and friendship alive. He had written her numerous emails with this objective in mind, but she hadn't answered any of them. She hadn't written him, something he could understand because he knew she was probably busy, but she could have answered him: just a brief email telling him she was safe would have sufficed. He was angry and hurt about it. Hell! He felt abandoned by his friend.
Nonetheless, he had continued to do his job to the best of his abilities, and kept contact with the rest of his family and friends as regularly as possible.
Today, he was talking to Cam on the phone when he asked, or more accurately tried to ask, something that had been bothering him for days.
"Do you think that it's ok if I start with a goldfish?" he asked his old friend.
Understandably, Cam was utterly confused by Booth's words and expressed it the best she could croaking a "What?"
"Parker wanted a dog but Rebecca and I thought that he wasn't ready for it: for the responsibility of taking care of the dog. So, we gave him two goldfish as pets and told him that if he took good care of them we'll talk about it again," Booth told her the story.
Cam would have sworn that she could hear the agent, or sergeant at the moment, smile through the phone all the way from the Middle East to the states. It was probably a good memory for him and it perhaps was accompanied by a lot of other happy memories of his boy observing the fishes, feeding them, learning to care for them, or even trying to avoid cleaning the tank.
All this still didn't explain his strange question, no matter how amusing he found the story.
"Care to elaborate, Seeley," she prompted him to clarify his aforementioned question to her.
"Don't call me Seeley, Camille," he retorted more out of habit, or inertia like the squints might have said, than anything else.
"Don't call me Camille," she played their little game. "Now explain yourself, Big Guy," she added in her no-bullshit boss voice.
"There's this woman, a reporter…she's been kinda…pursuing me a little," Booth answered hesitantly. He wasn't sure of what to make of the perky blonde reporter that he had arrested recently for being in a restricted area and had been pursuing him mercilessly since then. He liked feeling wanted, and he liked being the prey instead of the hunter for a change, but he still wasn't sure of what that meant.
"I'm gonna assume that you meant that the reporter had been going after you like you were the only piece of meat at an all you can eat buffet," Cam translated, amused by his apparent embarrassment, but she continued in a more serious way knowing that her old friend was asking for her advice. "And you're asking me if it would be okay to have a fling and then graduate to a relationship when you feel more ready for it, hence your very odd metaphor about pets."
"Yeah, I'm not sure what to make of her and the situation but…" he trailed off unable to explain his feelings better and trusting the coroner to understand him.
He had explained to his old friend the fallout of his relationship with Brennan and his decision to reenlist in the Army over dinner just after solving the hoarder case. Cam understood him then and even approved of his decision to stop running after her or waiting for her and moving on with his life. He had confessed to not being able to continue running after her, and to feeling quite old for it. He felt he was running out of time to build a family; he wanted love, to share his life with someone and a family of his own, and he felt that it was now or never. Cam had assured him that he deserved to have all that, and that he should do what was best for him. She had been honest, though, and told him that going to Afghanistan and the Army seemed a little extreme. Nonetheless, she had supported him in that decision and during his deployment with emails and phone calls, and now he was asking for that same honesty and Doctor Saroyan was going to deliver it.
"Yes, Booth, it is more than okay to start with a fish… Hell! If you think that you aren't ready for a fish, start with a plant! Listen, you're there to heal, so if what you need to help that along is to buy a fish, then buy the damn fish," Cam answered candidly and trying to convince the man that he was doing nothing wrong and that he had her approval and support now and would have them in the future if he were to need them.
After his conversation with Cam, Booth felt a lot more confident in his decision to move on from Brennan and build a life for himself with someone else. He knew that he wasn't ready for that yet, but he was ready for something less serious, like a fling. When he dated Catherine, he hadn't been ready to give up on Brennan and move on yet, so he had broken it up after only two dates and that stupid tie she gave him. It hadn't been pleasant to explain her that he was still in love with someone else, even if she took it fairly well. In fact, she guessed what the problem was, and when he couldn't figure out how to say it gently, Catherine finished the sentence for him. As uncomfortable as it had been, it was the right thing to do, and he had done it.
Now, however, he was ready to move on, and while he wasn't ready for a serious relationship, he was more than ready for a fling.
His mind made up, that night he sat with the blonde reporter in the mess hall and had his first date, if you could call a date having dinner in a military cantina in the middle of a war zone, with Hannah Burley.
As the months passed by, the fling became more and more serious and he found himself caring more and more for Hannah. Only two weeks before Caroline called him, he finally was ready to admit that he loved her, and not only to himself, but also to the woman that shared with him the cold desert nights of Afghanistan. The reporter reciprocated his feelings, and even if he still wasn't completely sure of where they could go as a couple, he chose to believe that they could find that place together.
Holding onto that thought as tightly as he could, he said his farewell to Hannah only three hours after a very honest conversation with Caroline.
The prosecutor had called the base demanding to talk with Booth as soon as he returned from patrol. Once he was back in the base, his CO had hauled him into his office, and connected him to the FBI where Caroline and Cullen were waiting for him. They had explained the situation with Cam and the lab, and Cullen had drawn up orders to get him back ASAP. The lawyer had promised to start rolling the ball to get him reassigned to the FBI and free of his contract with the Army using the special clause that Caroline and Cullen added to his contract that basically said that the FBI could recall him and cancel his contract with the military if they wanted, no explanation needed. It probably helped that his old friend Jack, now a general in the Pentagon, threatened Colonel Pelant with snatching him away from them and into his command for the duration of the deployment. Much like his phone call to Fort Myer had saved him from punishment for going AWOL to see Bones at the airport; he helped him with that contract too. Then again, no one really argues with Jack, and it was not about the stars on his shoulders, which helped and in this case a lot, but he had only been a colonel when his CO had said that trying to control Jack was like trying to control a tornado.
On a more personal note, after Cullen left the room, his conversation with Caroline had helped him a lot with something that should have been solved years ago: Parker's custody. She was going to talk to a custody lawyer, the best in Caroline's words, and have her call him during the next week. Booth had decided that it was time to secure his time with Parker; it was time for Rebecca and him to get a real and legal agreement to share the kid's custody properly.
During their goodbye Booth had told Hannah about this and had explained that he was going to do his best to stay in D.C. and to avoid coming back to Afghanistan, which shouldn't be a problem, so he didn't expect to come back. She had understood his need to go back home, or so she said, and they had made promises of doing their best to keep what they have alive until they could see each other again.
He didn't know where his relationship with Hannah would go, or even if it would survive the distance and the separation. In fact, he had the nagging feeling that Hannah wouldn't be with him for long. That conversation he had with Cam about fishes and dogs kept coming back to haunt him, and he couldn't shake the feeling that he was a fish, a colorful fish, but a fish nonetheless for Hannah, as much as she had been for him at the beginning. He guessed that soon enough the water would get dirty and no one would want to clean it, which always results in dead fish.
But he was ready to try and figure it out along the way. Not even the negative sensations that such a hunch gave him could destroy the hope that filled him, because even if Hannah wasn't the woman for him then someone else would be.
He now knew that he had moved on from Brennan, as proven by the fact that he loved Hannah. He will always love Brennan in some way, because he had loved her deeply for a long time, but he wasn't in love with her anymore. He no longer wanted to share his life with her.
When he had dated Catherine, he hadn't been ready to let go of Brennan and he had broken the relationship after only two dates. When he had started dating Hannah, he had been ready for a fling but not a relationship. Now he loved Hannah and he knew he was ready for a relationship. He was ready to fall in love with someone and he was ready to find someone with whom he could share his life, his whole life. He didn't know if Hannah will be the one, and he suspected that she wouldn't. However, he was sure now Doctor Temperance Brennan wouldn't be that woman which for him meant a real, honest opportunity of falling in love again.
Booth got onto the plane that took him back to the states filled with hope: hope in the future and in love.
Like numerous nights during the last seven months in the desert, a pair of warm, soulful dark brown eyes plagued his dreams all the way back home.
Like all those mornings after those nights, he woke up feeling stronger than when he went to sleep.
Thanks for reading. Please, let me know what you think.
A/N2: To those I told I was going to update this before Christmas, I'm sorry for the delay. My studies and preparing for Christmas delayed me.
Happy New Year to everyone!